PAM, 
NEVOTIONAL 


‘\ THE 


American Cract Sorietp 









IN 


THE FAMILY. 


BY REV. YATES HICKEY, 


SUPERINTENDENT OF COLPORTAGE, CHICA- 
GO AGENCY. 


“CHICAGO: 
~ NO. 69 STATE-STREET, x 


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THE 


AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY 


THE FAMILY. 


BY YATES HICKEY, 


SUPERINTENDENT OF COLPORTAGE, CHICAGO AGENCY. 


PLC AGO; 
NO. 69 STATE-STREET. 
1857. 


Meas 5 ae 
a : te hit f i is ae aa 


1. THE NEED OF IT. 
2. HOW TO USE IT. ae 
3. WHAT IT IS DOING. Wis: 
| 4, WHAT IT PROMISES, OR IS ADAPTED 1 TO Do. 


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THE 


AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY — 
IN THE FAMILY. 


Ix order to appreciate the value of an instru: 
mentality designed to bless our households, we 
must hold an intelligent estimate of the impor- 
tance God attaches to the family, at all times and 
in all nations. Having this, and then finding our 
providential position discovered to us by the light 
of facts in current history, we may learn and feel 
what are our necessities. 

In the early time God made this announce- 
ment: “Abraham shall surely become a great 
and mighty nation, and all the nations of the 
earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him, 
that he will command his children and his house- 
hold after him ; and they shall keep the ways of 
the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” 


4 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


So much importance has God attached to the 
family and its influence in his economy, as a means 
of social, political, moral, and religious good to 
our race, that when he declared to Abraham that 
he should “surely become a great and mighty 
nation,” and that “all the nations of the earth” 
should be “blessed in him,” God made this prom- 
_ise to rest on the fact that Abraham would com- 
mand his children and his household after him, 
that they should keep the ways of the Lord. 
This was a requirement which must be met, in 
order that the Lord might bring upon Abraham 
that which he had spoken of him. And ever since, 
the condition of the family has marked the char- 
acter and indicated the destiny of nations. When- 
ever the original, pure, and holy idea of the family 
has been obscured, and its instruction neglected, 
then ignorance and licentiousness have prepared 
the way for decline and ruin. 

But we are assured that the results of family 
instruction and government in the household of 
Abraham should have their influence, not only 
while he lived, but that “all the nations of the 
earth” should be blessed by it. Let us examine 
some matters of fact from which we may natu- 
rally draw principles and considerations of duty. 
And taking the history of Abraham and his de- 
scendants as our example, it is not assuming tee 


o 


IN THE FAMILY. 5 


much to place this nation in the light of it. By 
so doing we gain the force of analogy, and more: 
we have the commands of God for our direction, 
and his promises for our encouragement. It was 
God who promised so great things to Abraham, 
and through him to the nations ; and happy will 
it be for this people if, by receiving timely warn- 
ing from the past, we shall be able to perpetuate 
and secure an increase of those blessings which 
began to flow upon us at the commencement of 
our national existence, and are continued still. 

How rich were the promises which God made 
to Abraham, and how faithfully are they being 
fulfilled ! And how closely allied to those prom- 
ises, in their wide and benevolent scope, do we. 
find the providential history of this great republic. | 
Yet this young nation, as we trust in God, has 
but begun its existence, if we consider the amount 
of influence we hope it is yet to exert on the world. 
Its influence must be great, greater than it is pos- 
sible for us now to estimate, and the question for 
each one to take home to his heart and to daily 
ponder is, What shall that influence be? for good, 
or for evil? 

It is not too much to say, that the free air we 
breathe is a part of the blessing of God through 
Abraham as a Christian father and faithful gov- 
ernor of his household. Witness the character of 


6% THE TRACT SOCIETY 


his son Isaac, the patriarch Jacob, and the high- 
minded Joseph, who gained the honors of a king- 
dom, and saved his own nation from destruction 
by famine, by a strict adherence to principle as 
taught by his fathers. Follow the line of glory 
till the babe was born in Bethlehem and nurtured 
at Nazareth—till the Saviour was betrayed at 
Gethsemane, crucified on Calvary, and rose from 
the dead, to live and reign and make intercession 
for sinners for whom he had made atonement— 
and know that ‘‘the nations of the earth” have been, 
are, and shall be blessed in Him, the natural de- 
scendant of Abraham. And mark, that all this 
was made to depend upon Abraham’s fulfilling 
the condition which God made binding, even that 
he should command his children and his household 
after him—that he should instruct and guide them 
as a Christian father. 

We have adduced this example as one of many 
furnished in the Bible, to show what importance 
God attaches to the family, and to its correct 
moral and religious instruction and government ; 
and we see what blessings follow, and how gen- 
eral they become. 

This example has a contrast most sad and 
suggestive, in the course which Eli pursued with 
his sons; for we learn that they caused his 
death and their own ruin, because they were not 


IN THE FAMILY. mT 


commanded in the sense in which braham com- 
manded his children, but were left to their own 
uncontrolled waywardness. God declares, “I 
have told him that I will judge his house for 
ever,” “because his sons made themselves vile, 
and he restrained them not.” 

The truth taught by the examples here refer- 
red to is abundantly attested by instances which 
come within the range of ordinary observation, 
and concerning which we only add the following 
contrasted and most significant scripture com- 
ments : 


“Train up a child in the way he should go; and 
when he is old he will not depart from it.” 

“But a child left to himself bringeth his mother 
to shame.” 

“The just man walketh in his integrity: his 
children are blessed after him.” 

“Seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, 
I will also forget thy children.” 

“Wonor thy father and thy mother, that thy 
days may be long in the land which the Lord thy 
God giveth thee.” 

“The eye that mocketh at his father, or despis- 
eth to obey his mother, the ravens of the valley 
shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat 
it.” 


8 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


And may we not hence see that what we as a 
people have been and have done, and what we are and 
are now doing in the political, moral, and religious 
world, is attributable, in‘an important, if not in a 
primary sense, to family influence ; and that what 
we are to be and to do depends on the same? 

We predicate this view on the immutable prin- 
ciples of God’s government, as revealed in his 
word, and illustrated in his providence in his 
dealings with the nations. History is abundant in 
its proofs, but we have space for only an allusion 
to some prominent marks in our own country’s 
record: and we need only allude to our fathers, 
the dear brave purchasers and transmitters of 
our liberty, to inspire fresh admiration for their 
high religious character, and to remind us of the 
straitness with which they commanded their chil- 
dren and their households. They discountenanced 
in the most positive and peremptory manner the 
violation of the Sabbath, the neglect of public 
worship, and all kinds of profaneness and licen- 
tiousness. As parents and heads of families, they 
felt under obligation to care for the moral deport- 
ment of all who were committed to their charge. 
They felt a responsibility for their spiritual and 
eternal interests ; and the economy of their house- 
holds was so ordered as to carry the conviction to 
the minds of their children, that the knowledge, 


‘IN THE FAMILY. 9 


the love, and the service of God is the great busv- 
ness of life, to which every thing else is to be sub- 
servient. They understood full well, from the 
Bible and their own experience, that the family is 
the great school for educating freemen, the great 
nursery of piety; and that whatever tends to ele- 
vate and purify the family, so far promotes the 
peace, liberty, safety, and well-being of the state, 
and the prosperity of the church. And we know 
that men holding and carrying out such principles 
as these founded our colleges, originated our sys- 
tems of common schools, offered the first intelli- 
gent resistance to tyranny, struck the first blow 
for liberty, and framed and executed our best 
laws. 

Our beloved country’s “father” was a child and 
youth of careful instruction and training. He 
knew and bore testimony to the value of family 
religion; and down to the latest age it will be 
well for parents to encourage their own hearts 
and strengthen the principles of their children by 
frequent reference to the story of “ Washington 
and the Cherry-tree.” It shows that “the boy is 
father to the man ;” that the man is in the boy, and 
that then his character is formed. It shows that 
mothers are the framers of man’s character, and 
that “whatever may be the fate of man, one stamp 
he always bears on his brow—that which the 


10 THE TRACT SOCIETY ba 


mother’s hand impressed on the soul of the 
child.” 

It was through the influence of men who had 
such home advantages as Washington, that suc- 
cess crowned the revolutionary struggle, and that 
our Constitution was framed on principles so 
nearly in accordance with the will of God as ex- 
pressed in the Bible. And thus far the God of 
nations has continued to us the blessed inheri- 
tance, transmitting it in an almost unbroken line 
of presidents who have devotedly loved or openly 
sustained the institutions of the gospel; through 
such hands as the venerated Adams, who never 
forgot that when a child his mother taught him 
that beautiful evening prayer, ‘‘Now I lay me 
down to sleep,” etc. 

We would gladly linger to recount the bless- 
ings which the influence of the family have con- 
ferred upon us politically, but must pass to an- 
other view. ; 

The household religion of our fathers prepared 
the way for civil liberty ; and in turn those insti- 
tutions which are the fruit of religion, inspiring 
and giving a safe direction to patriotism, have 
blessed the church, and secured to her those 
greater means of usefulness which can be enjoyed 
only in a free and happy country. Religious in- 
struction has been permitted and encouraged in 


nett 
* IN THE FAMILY. 11 
the family, the school, and the college. The Bible 
has, with a few dark exceptions, been an open 
book, and we have no law to check the usefulness 
of the moral and religious press. 

Under the influence of religion as developed 
in that first divine institution the family, this 
republic has stood firm; while others which 
had not the bulwark of intelligence and religion 
for their defence, have risen and fallen by the 
score. 

Under the influence of religion as thus devel- 
oped, the church of Christ bas prospered in all 
quarters of the land, and from the older portions 
have gone forth piety, talent, and wealth, to bless 
the benighted of our own and other nations. Nor 
is this a time or an age in which it will do to 
stand still. We must see to it that the instruc- 
tive lessons of the past are improved in securing 
far greater achievements in the future. 

We have seen the extent of God’s promise to 
Abraham, and it requires no stretch of faith to be- 
lieve that this nation was baptized with the influ- 
ence transmitted through him as a true Christian 
father. We covet the continuance of that blessing : 
but if we would enjoy it, we must comply with 
the conditions as Abraham did; for if we forget 
“the law of our God,” he will forget our children ; 
and if they be forsaken of God, our criminality 


12 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


will be as immediate as the results upon our 
nation must be dreadful. 

Is it not safe and wise to infer, then, that the 
future of ths nation’s greatness and usefulness, and 
the futwre of the blessings which may flow through the 
American churches to the world, depend, wnder God, 
primarily upon the kind of wmstruction and govern- 
ment which shall be maintained in owr families ? 

We can, in the space we wish to occupy, only 
thus allude to the marked resemblance between 
Abraham’s circumstances and the promises made 
to him, and the position and the promises implied 
in providence to this young nation. The analogy 
might be carried out with great completeness. 
It is not the analogy of theory merely, by which 
nothing is very definitely proved, but the analogy 
of facts. Facts carry conviction to the mind, and 
these are so plainly written on the face of our 
history, that he who will may compare them with 
the word of God, and learn that He has not for- 
gotten his covenant and promises, nor failed to 
bless the use of appointed instrumentalities for 
elevating the position of nations, or the labors 
of those who reverence his law. 

And it is thus certain that the family, in its 
proper institution and with its proper moral and 
religious instruction, is necessary to maintain the 
position of those who have been elevated by its 


IN THE FAMILY. 13 


blessings. How much more necessary, how indispen- 
sable must vt then be, in the work of elevating the wn- 
blest masses, the ignorant and the vicious, the scattered, 
neglected, and degraded. 

It is in connection with this last thought, and 
in view of the importance which God manifestly 
attaches to the family, and the perils which must 
attend the neglect of its instruction, that we 
would speak of 


THE FAMILY IN OUR COUNTRY. 


Individuals good and bad are here. Families 
are here the heads of which ‘‘ command their chil- 
dren” in the high and beneficent sense of God’s di- 
rection, and families wethout instruction or government 
abound. Communities are found which are bless- 
ed with family religion and instruction, and their 
universal fruits, the school, the Sabbath, the gos- 
pel, the church, and the capacity to live and en- 
joy them ; and from these go our intelligent and 
safe law-makers and executors, our pastors, teach- 
ers, and missionaries : in these is our hope, while 
upon them rests a great responsibility. But the 
general fact is different. There are broad prai- 
ries and mountain fastnesses and the sparsely set- 
tled wilderness ; cities but recently founded, and 
so rapidly grown as to present a most heteroge- 
neous collection of names, nations, habits, and 


14 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


tongues ; and multitudes of places in parts of the 
country, both old and new, presenting grounds 
where the minister of Christ cannot go and stat- 
edly deliver his messages of love. And all these 
are the very places where pernicious influences 
grow and strengthen. 

There are vast numbers of children and youth, 
and young men and young women, and those of 
all ages, who enjoy no proper family influence. 
Multitudes are literally afloat, and have no steady 
abiding-place ; and many who have long enjoyed 
a home and the blessings of the family, are rap- 
idly losing all restraints, and taking license to do 
all manner of evil. 

And where the family is maintained in form, 
there is an alarming and growing absence of that 
instruction and government which are absolutely 
necessary to keep the family alive. The father is 
intent upon his gains, or is obliged to exert all 
his energies to supply the wants of his house- 
hold ; and having never known books, or having 
left his books behind him in his migrations from 
place to place, he gives up thought and study and 
instruction, and takes on the rough features of 
his home and his labors, leaving all instruction 
and discipline to the mother. She, with many 
cares and trials and labors, and with no means or 
aids in books, or lessons remembered, soon learns 


IN THE FAMILY. 15 


to put off the first duty she owes to her children ; 
and they grow up wild and rude, without know- 
ledge of society, laws, or religion, and are the 
ready tools of the strong and the easy dupes of 
the designing. 

A sad specimen of this large class of families, 
thus imperfectly described, was personally known 
to the writer within a few months past. A young 
man who had enjoyed the pious instructions of a 
praying mother in the east, married and moved 
west. He made no profession of love for the Sav- 
jour, but lived a moral life, and was held in high 
esteem by his neighbors. He believed it his duty 
to labor hard and gain a worldly inheritance, and 
that if he wronged no one he was safe. The Bible 
was neglected ; churches were remote, and no ef- 
fort was made to attend them. Years have passed. 
A large family are living on a cultivated farm. To 
labor and to gain has been the chief concern ; 
and as a result, sons have almost no education, 
and not even common respect for the religion of 
the Bible. Daughters grow up who know not the 
meaning of the cross, the precious and sad em- 
blem of Christ’s death, with the story of which 
they are unfamiliar. Vain amusements occupy 
the time and thoughts, and absorb the earnings 
which might otherwise be employed to obtain 
useful furniture for mind and heart. And now 


16 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


the moral man comes to see his mistake. He 
sees his godless family are going astray in many 
different roads, and are unprepared to walk up- 
rightly in any. He finds out his own need of a 
regenerated heart and a renovated character. He 
embraces the truth, and attempts to set up the 
true standard of living ; but opposition, ridicule, 
and disorder discover to him how sad a thing it 
is to allow a household to grow up without the 
salutary “command” to which God attaches so 
much importance. 

And this is only an average case. It is probably 
better than the average ; for here we see the father 
of the family turning to God, and trying to lead 
his household with him to the family altar, the 
church, and the Sunday-school ; while in most 
cases the whole pass on to ruin in an unbroken 
company. We are no alarmists ; but the true pic 
twre, a picture which may be found in almost any, 
nay, which has been found in every district of our 
country, is sad; and there are dangers to souls, 
and to peace, order, and prosperity. 

Here is the seat of error. Here errors propa. 
gate themselves with wonderful success. Here, © 
notwithstanding all that has been done, are vast 
regions where families enjoy no schools, no preach- 
ing, no religious books or Sabbath-schools, and 
oftentimes no Bible ; and hence the ease with 


IN THE FAMILY. LY 


which errors multiply themselves and spread 
among the people. Their name is legion. From 
blank Atheism to Universalism, Mormonism, Ro- 
manism, and all the minor isms which hang so 
heavily on the progress of the gospel, all find 
zealous adherents ; and amid these influences the 
youth receive their impressions, and the family is 
lost. For these errorists, disagreeing among 
themselves and with each other, yet are agreed 
in rejecting the great principles of Bible Chris- 
tianity, and unite their forces in denouncing evan- 
gelical truth and all those institutions which aim 
at the education and elevation of the people. A 
vast, diversified, and powerful set of machinery is 
at work in our country, which, if left to its own 
unchecked operation, would quickly demolish ed- 
ucation and the Sabbath, drive out the Bible, and 
leave a moral wreck. 

These are truths whose illustration has become 
too familiar to admit of doubt ; and it becomes 
considerate men to pause and inquire whereunto 
this may grow. It is well for us to reflect that 
it is in a land as open to the assaults of error as 
to the teachings of truth, and among a people 
making haste to be rich. It is preventing and 
destroying the legitimate influence of the family, 
which this population cannot, must not lose, or 
they are lost, and incalculable evil must follow. 

2% 


18 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


Not here only, but here chiefly must far present 
efforts be expended. The safety of our institu- 
tions and the interests of the cause of Christ 
throughout the world demand it. So largely do 
universal liberty and the prevalence of Christian- 
ity depend upon the issue of the great struggle 
here commenced, the great battle here thicken- 
ing between truth and error, liberty and despot- 
ism, Christ and antichrist, that we cannot esti- 
mate too highly the importance of thickly setting 
and manfully defending here the standards of » 
truth and a pure gospel. 

Romanism, now but another name for despot- 
ism, and infidelity are combined, and determined 
to govern our country. All our danger should be 
truly apprehended, and the proper defences at 
once made ready. While the disease is yet in a 
manageable state, the wisest physician should be 
called. Our only sure remedy is in the gospel, 
and this can take effect primarily only in individ- 
ual hearts. It is only by its effect upon individ- 
uals that it can reach the whole body, and curing 
all our ills, save our people, our country, and our 
institutions, and through them bless the world ; 
and we are assured by all past history and the 
well-known necessities of the present, that most 
of this work must be begun and conan in the 
family. 


IN THE FAMILY. _ “19, 


Respecting all his holy commands and instruc- 
tions, our heavenly Father says expressly, ‘‘ And 
these words, which I command thee this day, 
shall be in thy heart; and thou shalt teach them 
diligently unto thy children ; and thou shalt talk 
of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when 
thou walkest in the way, and when thou liest 
down, and when thou risest up.” 

The necessity is here asserted for the universal 
prevalence of Bible instruction and evangelical 
religion in families, in another form and at a later 
day ; and it may be inferred as particularly nec- 
essary in a country like ours, insomuch that the 
intelligent observer of our wants must hail with 
pleasure and with hope any and every institution 
which is wisely adapted to promote these objects. 
We therefore present 


THE AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY IN THE 
FAMILY, 


And assume that it is such an institution as the 
family needs. The Tract Society, with its choice 
selections and numerous issues of the best books 
of all ages, is peculiarly an institution for the family. 
For this sphere it was designed and is adapted, as 
appears on its very face, in its history, and by the 
titles of its publications. First of all we have — 
the “Family Bible” with brief notes and instruc- 


¥. 


| 20. = THE TRACT SOCIETY 
€ 


— , ’, 

tions, and other valuable helps to its. study. We 
have “Sacred Songs for Family Worship,” “Songs” 
and ‘Easy Lessons for the Little Ones at Home,” 
“The Child’s Paper,” “Child at Home,” “Mother 
at Home,” ‘Letters to a Daughter,” “Counsels to 
Young Men,” “ Advice to a Married Couple,” and 
many others of hallowed remembrance, to which 
God has given great power to do good in the 
family. 

In speaking of “the Tract Society in the fami- 
ly,” we call attention to, 1. The need of it; 2. 
How to use it; 3. What it is doing; and, 4. 
What it promises, or is adapted todo. And for. 
all these views we should have a sufficient illus- 
tration, could we print the observations and expe- 
riences to the amount of one month’s time select- 
ed from the labors of our brethren in different 
parts of the country. We should learn from 
these, | 

1. The need of the Tract Society in the family, from 
the disorganized state of society in all the newer 
districts, tending to the neglect of instruction and 
the disregard of restraints, and to general dissi- 
pation of mind. These are the first-fruits of emi- 
gration, and in connection with them we find 
much destitution and neglect. In many families 
there is no Bible; in many more no religious 
book is found. Multitudes have not the gospel 


IN THE FAMILY. 21 


¥ 
in any form, and never hear it preached. And 
here we can see how easy it is to lead the active 
mind to evil, if pernicious influences prevail; and 
they are sure to enter unoccupied ground. We 
see also how greatly the Tract Society, as a pio- 
neer missionary agency, is needed to come into 
all such families and communities, and occupy 
the minds of the people ; to secure the continu- 
ance of any former good habits ; to reiterate the 
command to keep the Sabbath holy ; to urge to 
temperance ; to guard against the thousand er- 
rors which rush into minds not preoccupied with 
the truth ; and to lead immortal souls to Christ. 

It is needed in very many places as the only 
means of religious instruction and training which 
can be brought to bear or gain access through 
the superstitions and prejudices which lie against 
denominations ; and it is needed to render the 
family intelligent and ready to believe, and also to 
guide and educate for usefulness after conver- 
sion. Many false professions are made from want 
of definite and full instruction in the gospel plan 
of salvation, and the Tract Society is needed to 
prevent the evils which follow the making of false 
professions, by its abundant teaching in tracts 
and books where other means are not enjoyed. 

It is needed as an auxiliary to the preaching 
and teaching of the ministry everywhere, and to 


22 THE TRACT SOCIETY 
« 


help forward every true and well-defined reform 
through the family. The great and vital cause of 
home or domestic missions requires such an aux- 
iliary as the system of colportage, and both are 
becoming more and more a necessity for our 
whole country. 

It is needed to give to many foreigners a cor- 
rect idea of what the true family is, and to teach 
them American law, acquaint them with gospel 
institutions, and show them the nature and fruits 
of evangelical religion. 

And it is needed, greatly needed to counteract 
and displace the corrupt literature which is most 
industriously spread abroad in the daily, weekly, 
and monthly press, and in pamphlets and books, 
and which is gaining access to and destroying 
many thousands of families, and helping to fill 
the land and the world with crime and disorder. 
“Tt should not be forgotten that the agency of 
the press, which is so powerful as a means of in- 
tellectual and spiritual elevation, has equal power 
for evil when employed by infidel or irreligious 
hands.” There are large numbers of persons and 
a vast amount of capital employed in “ deluding 
our youth with dreams of unreal bliss, pandering 
to the taste of the licentious, seducing the inno- 
cent, profaning all sacred things, sacrificing the 
temporal and eternal welfare of thousands by 


IN THE FAMILY. 23 


prostituting the press for the sake of gain.” And 
all the marvellous facilities for giving rapid circu- 
lation are pressed into the service of this death- 
dealing traffic. “The ravages of this misnamed 
‘literature’ are scarcely less wide-spread than 
those of intemperance. It has demoralized thou- 
sands of the unsuspecting, and is known to have 
been the occasion of ruin to many of both sexes 
by its polluting pages; and an immense propor- 
tion of the issues of the popular press are of this 
sort—too vast a proportion for the temporal or 
spiritual well-being of this reading nation, or for 
the safety of institutions based on the sound in- 
telligence and virtue of the people.” See tract 
No. 493. 

Surely here is a work for the Tract Society 
with its printed gospel and attractive issues, 
suited to persons of all ages and all conditions of 
society. It is needed in all our families, both as 
preventive and cure for the evils of worthless or 
injurious publications. 

2. How to use the Tract Society in the family. 
As a fact it is used with the greatest pleasure 
and advantage in tens of thousands of families in 
all parts of the land, and in other lands, and is 
employed in very many ways to accomplish a 
great many good objects. How shall we use the 
Tract Society? Why, the question which multi- 


24 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


tudes are ready to ask is, “How could we do 
without it?” so deeply has it become rooted in 
the affections of those families which have learn- 
ed its value, and “how to use it.” 

Use it to interest and instruct the youngest 
and tenderest mind capable of receiving impres- 
sions through the eye or ear, and fix upon that 
mind some simple lesson of truth which shall 
grow up with it and become part of its charac- 
ter. Yes, let the youngest children have it, and 
the older children, the youth, the young man and 
the young woman, the middle-aged and the old. 
Let all use it, for there is something to interest 
and benefit all. Employ it on the Sabbath and 
every day in the week. Let the mothers and 
the fathers, and teachers, use it diligently and 
prayerfully, as God’s instrument of great power 
in guiding the minds and forming the principles 
of the multitude who may be benefited by it. 
Take it with you when you journey; use it in 
your shops and factories and stores and offices, 
and give it a place on your farms and plantations, 
for in all these ways it will gain access to the 
family, and with God’s blessing it will do great 
good. Employ it in personal efforts to bless your 
needy neighbors, and encourage others to use it. 
Have its issues always at hand, and study to use 
them to the best advantage, and you will ever 


IN THE FAMILY. 25 


be discovering fresh occasions and new ways in 
which to use it. 

Let the private Christian thus use it; and we 
would respectfully suggest also, let the minestry 
use it more and more; and after filling their own 
minds and hearts with the glowing illustrations 
of divine truth and grace found in the publica- 
tions of this Society, let them employ their help 
more fully in pastoral labors, and in a hundred 
ways which practice will suggest and render 
easy and pleasant. 

3. What the Tract Socety is doing in our fam- 
ilies. It is teaching sound morals and pure re- 
ligion. It is visiting, by its colporteurs, life 
members, directors, and active friends, all the 
families of our land, and supplying, by sale or 
gift, every accessible household with the means 
of such religious instruction as is, by the bless- 
ing of God, bringing many souls to Christ, and fit- 
ting them for usefulness. There are tens of thou- 
sands of persons in as many families in our coun- 
try who will praise God with their latest breath, 
while pointing to some book or tract as God’s 
means of blessing their households and saving 
their souls. 

It is a blessed instrumentality for counteract- 
ing the infidel, irreligious, and corrupt press, and 
is owned of God in this important work, as fre- 


26 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


quent reports and statistics abundantly prove, 
As a fair example in proof, I would remark, that 
a colporteur recently said to me that he visited a 
Christian family in which was a young man who 
had devoted much time to reading the bad pub- 
lications to which I here refer, and had, by their 
influence, become reckless, and, as he afterwards 
admitted, “As much an infidel as any thing.” 
The colporteur succeeded in selling to him “ Nel- 
son on Infidelity.” The young man read it, was 
convinced of his errors, and at once resolved to 
unburden his shelves from the large collection of 
fascinating, but worthless and pernicious books 
he had gathered. To use his own language, he 
“took off the griddle, and shoved them in.” And 
thus may we not hope that multitudes who are 
now eagerly receiving and reading what the 
emissaries of darkness are so diligently scatter- 
ing, will bring forth their books to be burned ?— 
the only safe way in which to dispose of them. 
Such indeed is the direct influence of this Society’s 
labors; and who will refuse to pray for its far 
ereater, even its complete success ? 

It is reclaiming the wanderer, and saving from 
error; is helping individuals and families to re- 
form bad habits, and cultivate better ones ; it is 
moulding many characters for this world and for 
the next, and exerting an incalculable influence 


IN. THE FAMILY. 27 


on all departments of education, by imparting to 
the mind desires for knowledge and experience 
of its benefits. Its colporteurs are placing selec- 
tions from its publications in district school libra- 
ries ; and through all the grades of schools, from 
the primary to the academy, the college, and even 
into professional departments in the university, it 
is found at work; and in not a few instances is 
known to have been the original agency in open- 
ing the way for instruction where now flourishing 
schools are maintained, 

What is it doing? Itis blessed of God in the 
conversion of many souls among all ages and 
classes, but especially among the hardened and 
abandoned, and those wholly neglected or un- 
reached by other agencies. It is filling school- 
houses and churches, and helping every other depart- 
ment of benevolent operations, at home and abroad, by 
what it does vn the family, in developing a LovE for 
these active Christian labors. 

It is causing many family altars to be erected 
where the voice of prayer was never before 
heard—to which end the Family Testament and 
Bible have been greatly blessed—and is success- 
fully teaching that evangelical religion is a ne- 
cessity in every well-regulated family, and that 
without it the blessing of God need not be ex- 
pected, 


28 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


It is meeting the foreign immigrants as they 
land on our shores ; meets them again and again 
at the various prominent points of transshipment 
in their journey to the interior; and is following 
them as they separate into families and go to 
their cabins on the prairies or along the rivers, 
in the mountains or the backwoods, not neglect- 
ing those in cities ; and many of them, after their 
long wanderings from home and friends and coun- 
try, are brought by this kind and humble agency 
to acknowledge the great Father of all, and be- 
come his servants in efforts to reclaim their coun- 
trymen who still wander from God. The great 
variety of the Society’s publications in different 
languages, enables it to prosecute the work in 
behalf of our vast foreign population with encour- 
aging success. 

More than four years ago the writer was per- 
mitted and constrained to say, in presenting his 
annual report to this Society, that “so deeply 
are the efficiency of the religious press and the 
usefulness of this. Society impressed on my mind 
from the constant discovery of facts, that I fully 
believe, if it were to-day forsaken by all except 
those who have been brought into the kingdom.of Christ 
through its instrumentality, and are now living, it 
would be taken up by them and carried forward.” 
Such was the belief then, and every month of 


IN THE FAMILY. 29 


observation and experience since has only served 
to fasten the delightful conviction more firmly. 
To God be all the praise. And let his people be 
encouraged to help, and to pray for the descent of 
the Holy Spirit, that it may fill all our hearts, and 
baptize all this admirable machinery, so that its 
power may be manifestly of God, and not of man. 
Then shall the report of “what it is doing” be in 
better proportion to its providential adaptation 
to the great work before it, and the urgent. de- 
mand for its agency. 

4. What the Tract Society promises, or 1s adapted 
to do. ‘The only hope of a lost world is, that the 
Saviour lives and loves souls; that this love is 
shed abroad in the hearts of Christians, and is 
leading them, as light increases, more and more 
to see and feel that effort is best expended in 
works of benevolence ; that money is best invest- 
ed, and will ultimately bring the richest harvest, 
when lent to the Lord; and that union of hearts 
and hands in labors of love, is the best business 
for all the family of the redeemed. 

And just here comes in the Tract Society to aid 
the private Christian, the pastor, and the mission- 
ary, with its many hundreds of evangelical books 
and tracts adapted to every age, and to almost 
every circumstance and condition of every indi- 
vidual and family, and which are approved, cir- 


30 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


culated, and used by all denominations of evan- 
gelical Christians. 

These the Society publish at the rate of about 
fifty thousand per day, and can publish in any num- 
ber demanded by the wisdom and liberality of the 
churches. These they seek to circulate by any 
and all available agencies, selling at exceedingly 
low rates, or giving where the case requires. But 
the chief instrumentality for circulating publica- 
tions and benefiting families, is our loved system 
of colportage. None are desired to engage in this 
labor but such as consecrate themselves to it, as the 
work and calling to which God in his providence 
invites them. Such men the Society will send 
forth, in such numbers as its funds will enable it 
to sustain, into all parts of our forming and needy 
country. 

Let the colporteur go and mingle with our fam- 
ilies, carrying with him the precious Messenger 
and the beautiful and instructive Child’s Paper, 
and the thousand and more of different tracts for 
all classes and ages. Let him carry the beauti- 
ful and valuable illustrated series, the Pictorial 
Tract Primer, the Bible Primers, Child’s Primer, 
and the great variety of excellent books and 
tracts for children; let him take to the sick-room 
the Afflicted Man’s Companion, or the Dying 
Thoughts of Baxter; let his satchel be supplied 


IN THE FAMILY. dL 


with copies of the Mother at Home, that it may 
counsel and guide mothers in the discharge of 
duty; Morrison’s Counsels, and the Young Man 
from Home, to guard the youth from temptation 
and teach him the way of life; Nelson, Spring, 
and other authors, to stop the mouths of infidels 
and lead them to Christ ; the works of Doddridge, 
Bunyan, Baxter, Wilberforce, Edwards, and oth- 
ers, to teach, instruct, defend against error, and 
build up in faith and love; Flavel, pointing so 
plainly and affectionately to the Fountain of Life 
and the Method of Grace, and to Christ Knock- 
ing at the Door of the sinner’s heart; Pike, to 
persuade to Early Piety and Guide the Young 
Disciple; the enchanting History of the great 
Reformation, the Spirit of Popery, the Colporteur 
and Roman-catholic, and others, to show the pa- 
pist his errors and point him to the life of faith. 

To the sordid, the avaricious, and the selfish, 
and those too much absorbed in the world, let 
him furnish the premium essays on beneficence, 
and other books and tracts which call for a self- 
denying benevolence, and point for motives to it 
to the word of God, the wants of the world, and 
the day of final judgment. 

Let him exhibit the missionary spirit, and 
arouse it in others, by the lives of Brainerd and 
Martyn, of Mrs. Winslow and Mrs. Smith, and let 


32 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


him scatter broadcast the Temperance and Sab- 
bath Manuals. 

Let the colporteur carry these and hundreds 
more of the Society’s books and tracts, so honored 
by usefulness, as he visits the villages, towns, 
and cities, or penetrates the forests, or rides over 
prairies, and searches out every abode in every 
district, and our families may be snatched from 
the grasping hand of error; and the terrible 
plague of ignorance, of infidelity, and of vice in 
every form and in its most dreadful effects, may 
be stayed. 

The want is appalling. The remedy is sure. 
God has chosen it, and is blessing it. There is 
hope ; but this rests on the diligent use-of means, 
the efficient use of those agencies which God in 
his providence has provided. These are now fur- 
nished to our hand, and there is too much to do to 
allow of inaction anywhere in any one. 

The Bible and an authorized ministry are the 
primary instrumentalities for making known the 
truth in the family, and we praise God for all that 
has been done. We exalt the Bible, we honor 
the ministry, as God’s chosen and favored instru- 
ments of salvation. They have done more than 
all others combined to make the family what it 
is In character ‘and influence in Christian lands. 
But their number! The number now or to be in 


IN THE FAMILY. oo 


the ministry, alas, is too small to do all the work 
of evangelization ; nor does God design that they 
should do it all. The chwrch must work for God, 
and her sons must consecrate themselves to his 
service in other spheres than the ministry. The 
faithful colporteur, hired or voluntary, may ena- 
ble many servants of the church who are dead to 
preach to thousands and millions without cessa- 
tion. The Bible must have distributers ; and so 
must the works of those who have loved the 
Bible, and have expressed most faithfully, plain- 
ly, and forcibly the teachings of the Bible, and 
have placed their illustrations of divine truth on 
the printed page to supply the lack of living 
teachers. 

The sanctified press and personal Christian 
effort are the means by which the American 
Tract Society is prepared in part, and is prepar- 
ing more fully as Providence brings to it the 
needed aid, to assist in the great work of evan- 
gelization, by securing a healthful, a saving fam- 
ily influence ; and if pure religion be the fruit, 
the remedy for vice and every ill will be found by 
this laying of the axe at the root of the tree. If 
all the power which God is manifesting his will- 
ingness to give to these instrumentalities is to 
be made available in this time of our nation’s 
need, the disciples of Christ must work; and all 


’ 
34 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


who love their country must help to save it by 
contributing, by every way in their power, to 
give efficiency to all means for placing our fam- 
ilies in a position to accomplish the purposes of 
their divine appointment; and there is something 
for all Christians and all patriots to do. ‘The 
world is becoming more and more known, wider 
in magnitude, closer in intercourse, more loving 
and more eventful than of old” The savor of 
Christ and his cross is securing more and more 
rapidly the triumphs of the Prince of peace, and 
our entire nation should be trained and fitted to bear 
a noble part in the conquest of the kingdoms of the 
earth to pure Christianity. 

Our entire history is one of blessing, and no 
suitable acknowledgment of mercies received can 
be made without corresponding efforts cheer- 
fully put forth to bless others. This involves in- 
dividual responsibility and action, and necessi- 
tates personal consecration. With these felt and 
made, and God’s blessing added, the work may 
be done. ‘There are whole states and territories 
in the West fast springing into importance, for 
whose wants this Society seems to have been 
especially contrived by Providence; while we 
have wide districts in every part of the land 
which cannot be effectually reached with evan- 
gelical instruction by any other means. There 


IN THE FAMILY. 35 


are souls in countless families beyond the reach 
of the minister’s voice, and in regions wehene he 
cannot be supported. 

In the system of colportage, there is a happy 
combination of personal labor and teaching by 
means of the press. Who can doubt its efficien- 
cy? Certainly not those who are conversant 
with the happy fruits. Avenues are opened, and 
our heterogeneous population is accessible, if we 
will meet them kindly at their homes, carrying 
with us the spirit and the messages of Christ. 
And lightly as the momentous fact seems to have 
impressed the minds of multitudes, it is scarcely 
a paradox to say that this Society has raised the 
dead and is sending them forth to the help of the 
living. Nay, more, it has multiplied each of 
them in their works, and enables them to preach 
permanently in thousands of places, and may en- 
able them to preach in the street, in the palace, 
and in the cottage and cabin, in the rail-car, on 
the steam-boat, in the school, in the family, and 
from house to house, in hundreds of thousands of 
places at the same time and all the time. Yes, 
“the mightiest minds, the warmest hearts, the 
most active and devoted and eminent servants of 
God of every age, these they have summoned 
back from eternity, and holding them in commis- 
sion in their immortal works, are now ready tc 


36 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


send them to every village and hamlet,” to every 
individual and family in our land and the world. 
And who will help us do it? 

The more we reflect upon the character of our 
population and the influences at work here for 
evil, the more important do we regard the efforts 
of this Society to evangelize this vast community 
of congregated nations. 

The importance of early influences, in forming the 
character of such a people, surpasses estimation. 
Our numbers now are comparatively few, and 
access is easy. If the moral force of the settled 
portions of our country be put in operation now, 
it can mould the character of the many increasing 
settlements. But without these influences on the 
family, Christian character is never formed, either 
in individuals or nations ; and what is to become 
of a large portion of our population, native and 
foreign, unless faithful colporteurs in greatly in- 
creased numbers are sent to their doors, carrying 
with them the publications of this Society, “culled 
by judicious hands as gems from the mine of 
truth,” attractive in style, cheap in price, and 
selected by the colporteur with reference to the 
wants of individuals and families as he comes 
personally to know them? From what can the 
church hope more than from this agency? Many 
thousands of these families must perish in hea- 


IN THE FAMILY. an 


then darkness in the midst of a Christian land, if 
the means to save them be refused ; and who will 
have to answer for it? The instrumentality is at 
hand, and the opportunities for using it are rapid- 
ly passing. Shall they be improved fully, par- 
tially, or not at all? God has made our duty 
very plain. 

There is hope in the fact that society is yet in’ 
a plastic state. The enemy is at work, and is 
terribly successful; but let this Society aid the 
home missionaries, and send out its own laborers 
with publications teeming from the sanctified — 
press in English, German, French, Spanish, Dutch, 
Welsh, Danish, Italian, Swedish, and Hungarian, 
and with them all carrying the Bible, and we 
shall see pious mothers and intelligent and obe- 
dient children, family religion, and a light in 
many hearts and homes where now all is dark. 
Temperance will triumph, the Sabbath will be 
remembered and kept holy, ignorance will give 
place to intelligence, souls will be saved, error 
will die out for want of sustenance, and Zion will 
become beautiful for situation. Neglect it, and 
darkness that may be felt and days of disaster 
must soon succeed, 

The mission of Jesus is to be accomplished 
amid commotions; and the busy, moving charac- 
ter of our population is much more hopeful than 


¥ 


38 THE TRACT SOCIETY 


it would be, did we see the pall of a dead passiy- 
ity resting upon the land. Let the advantage be 
improved, and the generations following shall 
rise up and call us blessed. And let the person 
who contributes only enough to pay the expense 
of publishing a single volume, reflect that he is 
providing spiritual nutriment not only for the 
families of this generation, but for generations 
yet to be born. ‘The tracts of Luther more 
than three hundred years old have been found, 
not only preserved in public libraries, but in the 
possession of the German emigrant on our west- 
ern borders, teaching the same truths that shook 


_ the papacy and convulsed the world in the period 


of the Reformation, still reiterating in American 
forests the glorious doctrine that ‘the just shall 
live by faith’ The publications now going forth 
in such numbers from a sanctified press may be 
doing their silent work of mercy centuries hence, 
and until the world is destroyed.” And if, instead 
of giving circulation to one volume, this person 
contributes funds enough for a hundred or a thou- 
sand volumes, who can calculate the amount of 
good which a Christian, or any man in moderate 
circumstances, may accomplish for the families of 
our land? 

And if, in addition to helping publish, he has the 
means to support one or more living agents who 


IN THE FAMILY. 39 


will go forth prayerfully to distribute these immor- 
tal works, pleading with God at every step to wa- 
ter the seed sown and make it bear a hundred-fold 
increase, who can tell where the circling waves 
of blessing to the needy will end, or how many 
precious souls one may thus be instrumental in 
bringing home to his glorious Redeemer ? 


‘‘Oh how sweet, to dwellings lonely 
Leaves of heavenly truth to bear ; 
Dropping print where printing only 
Comes to bring salvation there ; 
Kindling in each house a flame 
With my Saviour’s glowing name.”’ 


Notse.— We would respectfully and earnestly request that 
all who desire to help us in this good work of the Tract So- 
ciety, in any or all of its departments—any who love our 
common Saviour, and desire to take part with us in this 
labor of love, will not wait to be called upon for aid, but 
send as soon as practicable, and whenever practicable, to 
any of the Society’s agents or superintendents, at their sev- 
eral places of residence, or to O. R. Kingsbury, Esq., Assist- 
ant Treasurer, 150 Nassau-street, New York. 


Che American Cract Society 
PUBLISH 
A CHOICE SELECTION 


OF 


STANDARD EVANGELICAL WORKS, 
Comprising the best treatises 
OF 


BUNYAN, BAXTER, FLAVEL, OWEN, ALLEINE, 
BISHOPS HOPKINS AND HALL, 
AND OTHERS OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY; 


EDWARDS, VENN, DODDRIDGE, WILBERFORCE, 
: AND 
HANNAH MORE; 


OLINTHUS GREGORY, WILLIAM JAY, JOHN 
ANGELL JAMES, DR. MERLE D’AUBIGNE, 
- NEVINS, GALLAUDET, AND OTHERS; 


THE BEST WORKS 
ON 
THE EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY; 
CHRISTIAN MEMOIRS; 
AND 
A LARGE VARIETY 
OF : 
BEAUTIFULLY ILLUSTRATED PUBLICATIONS, 
FOR 
YOUTH AND CHILDREN. 





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